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Dominic Lam

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 1970

When Dominic Lam was a four-year-old boy living in Hong Kong, he already dreamed of being a visual artist.

Dominic Lam’s passion for the visual world led him into a career as an award-winning artist and internationally renowned crusader for the visually impaired. As Chairman of the World Eye Organization, Lam is helping to prevent and treat blinding diseases, especially among the poor.

For more than 40 years, Lam has balanced his life as an award-winning artist with his role as a medical doctor, philanthropist and entrepreneur.

In 1999 he founded the World Eye Organization in Hong Kong to help prevent and treat blinding diseases, focusing on poor people, initially in China and subsequently around the world. He was founding director of the Hong Kong Institute of Biotechnology. He also founded LifeTech Group, with the goal of developing, manufacturing and marketing the best health care products in China and around the world.

His long list of artistic accomplishments includes winning a gold medal from the International Olympic Committee for his artwork entitled “From the Great Wall to the River Thames.” In 2006 the Post Office of Hong Kong issued a souvenir cover and stamp using his calligraphy and painting.

"My 18 months at the University of Toronto were really most stimulating for me. I was very pleased by the flexibility, the passion and thoughtfulness of the faculty members. And I also made some of my best friends who were fellow graduate students at the time."